Mud, mud glorious mud!!
In the latest leg of the Derby Runner Cross Country League (Derby/Staffs) runners experienced four seasons in one day with wet and windy being the dominant conditions. This was the Club’s own event and the National Forest site at Boothorpe provided a proper cross-country challenge. Team wise this was the strongest performance by the Road Runners in the series so far with the Club’s men’s and women’s teams coming out on top in their respective races. Leading the way in both races were third place finishes for the super strong Chris Pearson and Jenny Laing. For the men’s team, as he has done all season, Steve Bullock provided brilliant support as he finished in sixth place with Seb van Dijk, Steve Green and Rich Miller packing brilliantly as they collected the 12th, 14th, and 17th finishing tokens, respectively. Sam Bassett looked super strong throughout as did debutant Jacob Edmonds as they finished in 22nd and 30th places with the steadily improving Mikey Walters completing the men’s team finishers in a well run 32nd place. In terms of the women’s team Katie Dennis put in her usual committed performance as she finished in 22nd place with creditable performances from Kat Compton in 34th and Emma Sharp in 52nd as they completed the women’s team finishers.
In the women’s race Sarah Green gained valuable race experience in finishing in 70th place while the irrepressible Pauline Cooper finished in 75th as she performed the important race role of sweep person on the course. There was great packing below the team finishers in the men’s race with Andy Hawtin’s 36th place finish epitomising the ‘never say die spirit’ of the Club as he dragged back a substantial number of places on the downhill finish after looking a spent force on the long uphill climb. Rom Chambard collected the 39th place token with MV60 Colin Mee, just one place back, in 40th. The resurgent Mee has had an excellent series and could end up collecting age group prizes in both divisions after already securing the Leicestershire division with one race to go. Andy Orme ran strongly for 42nd place as did Dave Green in 49th and Steve Leafe in 58th. Ross Ballinger, Martin Bullock, and debutant Jay Darney completed a good morning of racing in scenic conditions as they finished in 63rd, 65th, and 84th places, respectively.
